Unai Emery admitted Aston Villa almost played themselves into trouble against Young Boys, but was overall thrilled to earn a 2-1 win in the Europa League.

Donyell Malen scored twice in the first half to put Villa in control of the match, though a 90th-minute goal from substitute Joel Monteiro almost set up a nervy ending.

Malen has now scored 12 goals in 19 Europa League appearances, netting eight for PSV, once for Borussia Dortmund and now three times for Villa.

Emery's side have won all six of their home European matches in 2025 (three in the Champions League and three in the Europa League). Since the start of 2023-24, they have won more such matches on home soil than any other club (13 in 15 games).

It is a win that moved Villa onto 12 points, and third in the league table, level with Lyon and Midtjylland in first and second.

And Emery was delighted that his side were able to keep themselves in a strong position at the top as they continue the fight for an automatic qualification spot.

"We had a bad moment in this competition, losing against Go Ahead Eagles," Emery told VillaTV. "But, in this competition, if you're not respecting each team, not respecting this competition, then you can get, in some moments, a bad result.

"After it, we are really focusing in this competition seriously and respecting every team.

"We have won against one team better than the last match; we played better than the last match we played in the Europa League against Maccabi [Tel Aviv].

"And [Thursday] was really a very good match, how we were dominating, getting advantage in the result."

Villa finished the match with 2.2 expected goals (xG) from 19 shots, and eight on target, though they only tested Marvin Keller three times in the second half.

Young Boys pushed their way back into the tie, and Emery noted that Villa need to keep their focus until the last minute.

"Last year, we needed goals at the end to be in the top eight, and, of course, if we can score goals, then it's better to take this advantage," he added.

"But I think the second half, we relaxed a little bit, we were close to getting chances and scoring goals, we were not ruthless like we needed.

"Being consistent and ruthless in the moment, we could have scored more goals because, after we didn't score, they had two chances and scored one goal. And we were in trouble for the last minutes.

"Of course, we continued dominating, more or less, but to be consistent and the demands we want to add in our squad through the players, through our structure. In the last minutes, we weren't doing it."